August 2017 Newsletter

Ryan Stapf has joined the club this summer. He has been interested in airplanes and getting his pilots certificate since he was 9 years old. He is 16 now and flying with his instructor Diane Carbeiner. He can’t wait to solo!!!! If you see him at the airport be sure to say hi and welcome him to the club!!

In addition the Ryan, there are twelve other students training for various ratings. Starting with the private pilot rating, we have Eric Clark, Shellie Darr, Evan Hopper, Jon Sawyer, Paul Wang, Scott Haack and Wayne Crump. Eric is new to the club whereas Shellie, Evan, Jon, Paul, Scott and Wayne have been members for a while. Eric joined the first of June. Shellie has returned to active status after having taken a break from flying for several years.

In the instrument category there are: Brad Ward, Michael Pierce, Dave Ratliff and Dave Wennlund. The newest member of this group is Dave. He joined in May of this year

There are two people working on commercial licenses, and they are Mo Hyder and Bryan Ruiz. Bryan joined in June.

Lastly, Bill Craig recently joined in July. He has joined ready to fly since he is a retired U. S. Air Force pilot and is currently employed as a pilot.

If there is a student pilot that I have overlooked, would that person, or anyone else for that matter, let me know about it?

All of these students are being taught by six instructors that have been approved by the board. They are Niki Gaskins, Diane Carbeiner, Chip Knuckey, Josh Brooks, Dean Jones and Jim Goetsch. Niki and Chip each have four students and Josh has two. Josh and Chip are both instructing Mo Hyder. Diane and Jim each have one student where as Dean has two. Jim is quite busy keeping the airplanes going, so the amount of time he has available for instruction is limited.

Pilot registration in Illinois The new Illinois pilot registration is available: Effective Jan 1, 2017 Illinois statues have changed making registration of your pilot certificate a one-time requirement. The one-time fee is $20.

If you are currently registered, you may go online at any time and complete the one-time registration. The web address for online registration renewal is http://ppr.dot.illinois.gov . If you choose to wait, you will receive a notice at the end of this year.

If you are not currently registered with the Division, you will need to complete a paper application which can be found at http://www.idot.illinois.gov doing-business/registration/pilot-registration/index .

Richard Kramer

A note on house keeping:

It is my view that we have one of the best, if not the best, flying clubs in the region.

The club has become what it is because of the dedication and hard work of the co-founders of the club, Jim Goetsch, Rudie Herman and Bob Hammon. Bob is deceased and Rudie has moved to Florida, but Jim is still working hard to keep the airplanes flying.

There are others that serve on the board of directors meeting once a month to deal with financial and operational problems. We can not all be an airplane mechanic or serve on the board, but there are opportunities to be of service to the club.

Keeping the hangars and the office clean and tidy would be an example. I would like to suggest that when you notice that a hangar and/or office needs to be swept and tidied up that you plan to take fifteen to twenty minutes at the end of your flying time to sweep and put scattered items in their place. Remember if you don’t do it, it won’t get done.